Credit cards are commonly used over the public Internet to purchase goods and services. The information required to initiate a transaction consists of a credit card number, an expiration date for the card, a cardholder's billing address and the card holder's name as shown on the card. All of the information made available to support a credit card transaction may become known to a third party who is then in a position to use the same without the consent or knowledge of the cardholder. The fact that the credit card information can be re-used by a third party without the consent or knowledge of the card holder creates a problem for both the cardholder and the institution that issued the credit card.